Strike Force

U.S. FORCE EYES RAPID SATELLITE CAPABILITY

— Jane’s Defense Weekly, 7 January 2005—The U.S. Air Force, along with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), plans to conduct a flight experiment mid-year to see if it can rapidly place a light satellite payload into orbit aboard a small space launch vehicle. If successful, the demonstration could herald a new technology for space access, said officials involved with the launch.

RUSSIANS HELPING IRAN CREATE EUROPE MISSILE THREAT:

British Paper (AFP) Oct. 16, 2005

— Former members of the Russian military have been secretly helping Iran obtain the technology needed to make missiles capable of hitting European capitals, a British newspaper claimed on Sunday.

Citing anonymous “Western intelligence officials,” The Sunday Telegraph said the Russians were go-betweens as part of a multimillion-pound deal they negotiated between Iran and North Korea in 2003.

“It has enabled Tehran to receive regular clandestine shipments of topsecret missile technology, believed to be channeled through Russia,” the newspaper reported in a front-page article.

The allegations came after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice feuded openly with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov over Iran’s nuclear programme while on a brief trip to Moscow on Saturday.

…According to the Telegraph, Iran would be able to use its new technology to build a missile with a range of 3,500 kilometres (2,200 miles).

“It is designed to carry a 1.2-ton payload, sufficient for a basic nuclear device,” the newspaper said.

It quoted a senior U.S. official as saying Iran’s programme as “sophisticated and getting larger and more accurate. They have had very much in mind the payload needed to carry a nuclear weapon.

RUSSIA WARNS AGAINST MILITARY FORCE

—© Stratfor Inc., August 17, 2005

— Military force against Iran would be “counterproductive and dangerous,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Aug. 17. The ministry called for a diplomatic solution to the tensions surrounding Tehran’s nuclear program, warning of “grave” and unpredictable outcomes if force were employed.